Monday, August 29, 2016

Quizzes,
although often a helpful tool in determining where students stand as far as
comprehension in your course, can become monotonous over time.Rethinking the ways in which you utilize
quizzing could be the answer to breaking up the monotony of question after
question, and instead provide students as yourself new and interesting ways to
look at and work with information.

According
to an article by Maryellen Weimer in Faculty Focus, there are five types of
quizzes you may not have normally considered that could spice up the ways in
which students approach your class, and improve their engagement with the
content overall.And the best news?Some of them are really quite simple to implement.

Option
#1:Mixing Up Your Quiz Structure

Although
it seems too simply, switching up the formats of your quizzes between multiple
choice, short answer, opinion-based, open-book, take home, group quizzes, short
essay, you name it, can really help provide a way for students to deal with the
content in more diverse and intriguing ways.Providing them with quizzes that supply multiple outlets for them to
express what they know and are able to do with their newly learned information
make them more apt to continue working with that knowledge as the semester
progresses.

Option
#2: Collaborative Quizzing

Collaborative
quizzing is actually a neat little tool to use when you’d like your students to
have some time to talk through their ideas and theories about a particularly
dense or challenging piece of reading.You
might have students first complete their quiz individually, flip it upside down
on their desk, and then take some time to discuss their thoughts and struggles
with those around them.Then, after the allotted
discussion time, provide them a few extra minutes to go back through their quiz
to review and change answers as needed.This promotes the idea of utilizing resources and gaining perspective
with the elements you are working with in class.

If that’s
not quite your style, try quizzing students twice, once individually, and once
in a group using the same quiz.The two
quiz scores can be combined and averaged in some way according to a
pre-determined policy you discuss with your students to create one grade to
enter into your grade book.Regardless
of how you chose to do it, collaborative quizzing is a great way to get
students enthusiastically discussing course content and also reduces test
anxiety.

Option
#3: Quizzing with Resources

As a
preparation for class, have students take detailed notes on the content for the
day.Let them know ahead of time that
they’ll be able to use their notes on their quiz to ensure that they work hard
to comprehend the material and write notes that are helpful and effective.According to research, open-note quizzing
leads to higher final exam scores when coupled with collaborative work and
discussions in the classroom.

Option
#4: Quizzing After Questioning

Before
you send out a quiz to be completed, set aside some time to discuss any
questions about potential quiz content.Providing students with possible responses and working through the
issues and struggles they’ve been having together will help them to better
understand content previous to quizzing rather than receiving a poor score for
not understanding complicated material.If someone asks a question that stimulates a lot of good discussion,
that question becomes the quiz question and students have the designated amount
of time to write an answer.Or if a
variety of good questions is discussed and answered by the students, the
instructor can make the decision to then designate that everyone has completed
the quiz as a large group discussion, earning them all full credit for their
participation and debate.This approach
encourages students to ask deeper questions and provides ample information for better
classroom discussions.

Option
#5: Online Quizzes Completed Before Class

This is
a relatively common option that is easy to implement in your courses.Provide students with an online quiz that
they are to complete before attending class for the day.The quizzes can be graded electronically and
the results sent to the professor, outlining which questions students struggled
most with.Then, class time can be used
to address the areas that students are struggling with the most.

Monday, August 15, 2016

I’ve been thinking a lot about technology, lately.I was marveling at how closely it has become
attached to me, as a part of my life.What brought this on was a recent trip to the grocery store.During the short, five-minute ride to the
store to pick up a few things, I glanced down at my cup holder and realized
that I didn’t have my phone with me.

Now, I’m not someone who I would define as “attached to my
phone.”I often misplace it or forget to
take it out of my purse of backpack for hours on end, suddenly alert to a
muffled ringing that I then have to attempt to locate.However, I’ll be the first to admit than in
any awkward social situation (waiting rooms, bus stops, lines, hallways,
basically any time where I am completely surrounded by strangers), I often take
it out and stare at its blank screen, pretending I have something important to
do with it so that I don’t have to interact with others.Although, I really shouldn’t worry, because
the strangers around me are doing the exact same thing, furiously typing or
swiping their way across their glossy screens, eyes glazed over as they shuffle
in place, waiting for their first chance to bolt. Regardless, I actually found myself contemplating
whether or not I should turn around and get my phone before continuing on my
way.

Reflecting on this, it has become ever more obvious how much
technology has not only encapsulated our lives, but have provided us with ways
in which to express ourselves in new and interesting ways.Just ask those three high school girls in the
food court, not talking to each other, but instead spending their afternoon
snapping selfies or Snapchat videos and posting them #atthemallwithmybesties.

So, it’s no wonder that educators everywhere are
brainstorming for an answer to the question, “How can I use technology in my
classroom?”Don’t get me wrong, there is
tons of literature out there explaining different tools and tricks and gadgets
to get your students involved with, some of which I have already talked about
earlier this year.But technology
changes every day and with that prompts another step up from educators to again
incorporate technology in new and interesting ways.

That’s why I think the article I stumbled across on the
Faculty Focus website is pure gold.This
article, written by Karen Sheriff LeVan and Marissa E. King focuses on how best
to utilize audio as a means of student reflection in your courses.LeVan and King bring out prominent ideas of
what it would be like for students to be able to freely discuss their
reflections without the worries that accompany writing.Rather than focusing on comma placement,
spelling, and other grammatical features of their work, they’ll be able to
spend more time focusing on iterating their spoken content.Really, a genius idea.

Monday, August 1, 2016

No doubt about it, instructors want their students to come
to class prepared.They painstakingly
create assignments for students to complete outside of class in order for a
better in-class experience full of participation, discussions, and other
activities.But what do you do when your
students aren’t prepared?

Obviously, if students are unprepared, it limits what they can
do and how deeply they can engage with material during class.This also affects the ways they connect with
other students in the course, sometimes replacing potential connections with
barriers as they aren’t able to discuss the material.This ill-preparedness also challenges you as
an instructor.Do you give a quick
lecture to recap the pre-class content so everyone is on the same page?Do you give the unprepared students an alternative
assignment?Do you remove them from
class?Do you lower their grade?

Most importantly, what can you do to address the challenge
of unprepared students so that they don’t continue on the path of not
completing pre-class work?Here are a
few recommendations from Barbi Honeycutt, PhD, and writer for Faculty Focus.

Have a conversation.Before reacting too quickly, take some time to consider what is going on
when students come to class unprepared.Is it the same two or three students each time?Is it the same group of students?Do you see a trend?Are they only unprepared on Mondays, for
example?Are the students
resistant?Are they genuinely worried
about completing the assignment?Keep a
record, and then have a conversation with the students.Ask them to make arrangements to stay after
the next class or meet you during your office hours.Sometimes all it takes is a conversation with
a student to find out what’s going on and why they are falling behind.Then make a plan together to move
forward.Once they realize that you have
them on your radar, you may not need to do anything else.

Review your pre-class assignment.Since you and your students spend time
working together in your course, it’s important to recognize that your role is
to design the overall learning experience.That makes their role to come to class ready to participate in the
learning experience.You plan, they
engage. You teach by guiding from the sidelines, they learn by doing.Make sure your assignment requirements are
clear and easy to follow.Consider the
time that students will need to commit to the assignment in order to have it
completed for class.Remember that they
have other class, extracurricular activities like sports and clubs, and
part-time jobs aside from your own course.Sometimes a simple adjustment to the pre-class assignments is all you
need to do in order to improve student preparedness.

Proceed as planned.Giving a quick lecture to recap the pre-class work means you are setting
yourself up to give a quick lecture in every class from now on.Instead, proceed with your activities as
planned.This will show students who are
unprepared that class time will not be derailed by their lack of
preparation.Be sure to show students
the value of pre-class work.Demonstrate
how they will be using it, not only during class time, but to prepare for
assessments and life beyond the classroom.Consider how you are recognizing students for their preparation. The unprepared
students will see the value of pre-class work and hopefully this will motivate
them to be more prepared in the future.Utilizing small group activities is also a great way to motivate
students, since most group members won’t tolerate someone being chronically
unprepared.

Re-think participation grades.If participation grades are already built in
to your grading scale, then make “completing pre-class work” a significant part
of the participation and final grade.This provides you with the ability to flexibly incorporate their
participation and preparedness into their final grade.This also promotes student control over their
choice in whether or not they come to class prepared.Including this on your grading policy at the
beginning of the semester demonstrates the significance of pre-class work to
students, thus requiring students to acknowledge the consequences in terms of
how their lack of preparation affects their grade.

Set up a corner.As
suggested by Honeycutt, consider designating a corner in the front of the classroom
for students who did not complete their pre-class work to go and finish their
assignment during class time.This
approach allows students to catch up, but if the pre-class assignment takes
longer to complete than class time, they have to figure out a way to complete
the work on their own time.Plus, they
miss out on whatever activities or demonstrations are used for interacting with
the material on that day.

Monday, July 25, 2016

Making adjustments to your courses can seem like an
overwhelming task.However, it may only
take a few minor adjustments in order to promote a deeper level of learning
within your own courses.According to
Tyler Griffin, PhD, associate professor at Brigham Young University, there are
six “A” categories to consider in order to broaden student understanding a
promote a healthier learning experience within your courses.

Adjustments

Most courses don’t need a complete overhaul, but instead
need just a few minor adjustments for a smoother experience.Consider the common complaints or top
frustrations you hear from students year after year, then ask yourself if there
are any small things that you could address that would make a big impact.Where do students tend to struggle?What can you do to support students through
the most difficult sections?In most
cases, it’s not possible to remove every single obstacle to learning, but there
are things you can do to better support student learning.

Audience

Begin getting to know your students by asking them to tell
you a little bit about their backgrounds, struggles, and successes.This could be done via a survey at the
beginning of the semester or through one-on-one meetings scheduled with you before
the semester gets in full swing.Another
important concept to consider is why the students enrolled in your class are taking
it.Is it to fulfill a graduation requirement?Is it because they have a specific interest
in the topic?Have they heard good things
about the course from other students, prompting them to try it out for
themselves?

Learning more about your students provides a large ability
to conduct your course in a way that is beneficial for the learning of all of
your students.Do they get sleepy if you
dim the lights for too long?Are they
easily distracted by technology or other students?Are there times when they zone out during
class that you could choose to implement an active learning technique to keep
them engaged?

Applicability

Be sure to consider how your course is going to help
students not only succeed in your class, but in their life and careers.Then, let them in on these things.Students who are able to see relevance of a
course and the content covered within it are more motivated to succeed.Also do this for each assessment you assign,
notifying your students the sort of things you hope this assessment to accomplish
for them.

Adaptability

We’ve all heard the classic research that students tend to
lose grasp on their concentration after seven to 15 minutes of lecture.In fact, more recently, research has shown
that the time frame for concentration may be even close to three to five
minutes.Delivering bite-sized chunks of
information interspersed with appropriate active learning exercises and context
builders is one way to keep students interested and engaged throughout the
entirety of the class.Griffin specifically
states the importance of using the “three Ex’s” of instruction: explanations,
examples (and non-examples), and experiences.

Accentuation

Providing students with the opportunity to process important
information in multiple ways over a longer period of time promotes deeper
learning and comprehension.Therefore,
since students are most apt to accept cramming as an inevitable way of
studying, explain and demonstrate other more effective studying techniques like
exposing crucial information in steps and revisiting it often to build upon
their knowledge about it.This can lead
to deeper understanding and overall better comprehension of curriculum.Griffin suggests making sure students are
exposed to critical items more than once or twice in your classes for optimum
retention.

Assessments

Students often see course content as a bunch of disjointed
units rather than information that builds upon itself over time. Therefore,
when designing your course and course assessments, consider the big picture
that you’d like your students to leave the course with.Create relevant, increasingly complex
assessments in order to help them demonstrate the ways in which information
continues to build upward and outward into a broader and deeper understanding
of material.

Monday, July 11, 2016

You’re scheduled to teach a course you have taught before
that desperately needs revision.The
content and pedagogy go back for a decade or more and are both sadly obsolete,
or the grades have been abysmal and the students are threatening to revolt, or someone
(the department head, a faculty committee, or you) has decided to offer the course
online, or maybe you’re just bored and dread the thought of teaching it again.

Rebecca Brent writes that this scene is more commonplace
than it seems, and that the idea of refreshing a course can seem like a looming
force to be reckoned with.However,
after considering the steps required in a course refresher, Brent poses the
idea that maybe it doesn’t have to be as complicated as it seems.She proposes the following six steps in order
to refresh your course more effectively and maybe even with time to spare.These steps include:

Identify your reasons for change.

Gather ideas and resources.

Plan the changes.

Plan the evaluation.

Carry out the plans.

Regularly reflect on your course.

For more information on each of these steps and how to best
execute them, access the full article here.

Monday, June 27, 2016

There are several different ways to pose questions that
tests students’ knowledge.Creating a
solid exam means being able to determine what a student knows and is able to do
by the time testing takes place.Therefore,
it is good to regularly review the advantages and disadvantages of the most
commonly used tests questions and the test banks that are frequently used.

The most common forms of tests questions include:
multiple-choice, true-false, short-answer, essay, and questions provided by
test banks.If you’ve used any of these
types of test questions in your courses, consider what the benefits and downfalls
of including each type are.For more
information on the advantages and disadvantages of each type, read this article from an issue of Faculty Focus by none other than Maryellen Weimer.

Monday, June 13, 2016

I recently stumbled across an article in Faculty Focus that
proved to be an interesting read on how to help students who perform below
average in your courses.The author of
this piece, the fabulous Maryellen Weimer, sheds some light on how to help
those students who struggle in courses to become better learners and more
active participants in learning.

She writes, “Unfortunately, all too often performance on the
first exam predicts performance throughout the course, especially for those
students who do poorly on the first test.”This is then followed by a large variety of attempts to help those
struggling students by providing opportunities for tutoring, office hours,
study groups, review sessions, and more.Although these opportunities seem like a great way to offer students
extra help, often times the students who need the assistance the most are the
ones who choose not to come.

Dr. Weimer proceeds to discuss the ways in which studies
have shown direct communication between professors and struggling students
paired with a request for students to speak with them directly outside of class
provided a much needed boost in student comprehension, attention, and motivation
in the course.Students who attended
these one-on-one meeting with their professors spent time talking through their
performance in the course, working on goals they’d like to achieve within the
course, and developing changes to implement in how and what they were studying.

These meetings tended to lead to large increases in test
scores from their first to second exams, sometimes with percentage jumps as
large as three letter grades.

To learn more about this process and the steps taken to help
students succeed, click here.